We must invest in pre-K

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle

Published 6:04 pm, Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Public education might well be Houston's greatest challenge in coming decades. Much of our highly touted growth comes from immigrants who were poorly educated in their home countries. Educating their children, and giving them the tools to become productive members of society, may be the only way Houston can avoid the blight of a permanent underclass.

Want proof? Sheri Foreman, president and CEO of the Houston Center for Literacy, writes that "nearly a quarter of Texas children live in homes where the head of the household is not a high school graduate," and "one in five Houston residents lacks basic literacy skills" ("Success in school depends to a large degree on parents," Page B7, Aug. 30). Foreman recommends that schools implement adult literacy programs so that parents can become better partners in their children's education.

This is a good idea, but the essential education challenge that she addresses also serves to remind us of the importance of pre-K education. The benefits to all children from prekindergarten range from increased high school graduation rates to lowered rates of teen pregnancy to higher wages as an adult.

Bill Hammond, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business, recently wrote a powerful endorsement of pre-K, specifically of the Texas School Ready! (TSR) Project developed by the Children's Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston ("Quality prekindergarten is a prerequisite to prosperity," Page B7, Aug. 22). We'll second his proposal. TSR! is better than some pre-K programs at documenting the link between their program and positive results for kids - and the community. Hammond points out that "if current trends continue, by 2040, one out of three Texas workers will not have a high school diploma." He's surely right to argue that this number represents "a formula for broken dreams, dead-end jobs and a strain on the state's economy."

Texas public school education needs all kinds of fixes as we confront a future that promises and challenges in equal measure. Universal pre-K, TSR!-style, offers one very good place to start.